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ATB
ATB (Active Time Battle) is a combat mechanic that is new in Heroes of Might and Magic V. Its key innovation is that different units now get to act at different rates rather than strictly once per turn in a predefined order. That rate is coded by the new Initiative attribute. Basics Each unit on the battlefied has a hidden ATB stat, also called its "number of points on the ATB bar" (it can be seen on the debug console). It is a floating-point number in the range 1. As the virtual "time" goes, the unit advances on the "bar" at the rate proportional to its Initiative. Once the unit reaches 1, it gets to perform an action, and after it makes its turn, its ATB goes back to 0. After a unit makes a turn, the virtual "time" advances until some unit gets ATB 1, and everyone else's ATB is updated accordingly. Since this is a deterministic process, the amount of "time" to advance and the order in which the units will get turns can be precalculated — which is what the initiative line at the bottom of the screen represents. A "turn", for the purpose of spells and such, is defined as a slice of virtual "time" during which a unit with Initiative 10 gets to act once. So, 10 is the "base" initiative which is also the normal initiative of heroes and war machines. The rate at which ATB increases is thus Initiative/10 ATB units per turn, and virtual "time" can be represented as a floating-point number of turns since the start of the battle. At the start of the battle, everyone's ATB is randomized in the range 0.25. Due to the way floating point numbers are represented in a PC, this practically guarantees that no two units' ATB will ever be exactly the same, so the units' order on the Initiative bar can always be determined unambiguously. ATB changing effects Effects that mention one-time "initiative" percentages are applied as percentages of 1 ATB. E.g. Wasp Swarm subtracts 0.2/0.4/0.6 from the target's ATB depending on the caster's Summoning Magic. So, these effects are more pronounced on units with lower Initiative because they would take more "time" to regain that amount. Likewise, the wording that a hero "uses only half of their turn" for an ability means they move to ATB 0.5 instead of 0. In particular: * High morale makes the unit revert to 0.5 ATB after making a turn. * Low morale bounces the unit back to 0.5 ATB without granting a turn. * Waiting reverts the unit to 0.5 ATB. The net resulting ATB can never go below 0 or above 1. Other effects Only the information that is not specified in official descriptions is mentioned. ;Summoned creatures * Summon Elementals & Summon Phoenix: stacks start with ATB from 0 to 0.25 with 0.05 step, i.e. 0, 0.05, 0.10 etc. (?) * Gating: a summoned stack starts with ATB 0 unless the hero has Urgash's Call, in which case it starts with ATB 1. * Phantom Forces: starting ATB is 0.4+0.02*hero_level. E.g. at level 20, it's 0,4+0,02*20=0,8. ; Skills * Dark Renewal: the hero gets 0.2 ATB which stacks with Sorcery's bonus. The skill has no effect for spells affecting the entire battlefield (like Armageddon). * Marking abilities: Mark of the Wizard, Spirit Link, Retaliation Strike, Mark of the Damned: the hero moves to ATB 0.5. * Master of Storms: the new ATB is ATB * 0.7, so the effect is the greater the closer the target is to getting a turn. * Master of Ice: the target's progression on the ATB bar is stopped for 0.3 turns (it's enchanted with the corresponding effect that lasts that long). It also suffers a random penalty of up to 0.3 ATB. The freezing effect is equivalent to an ATB penalty of 0.3*Initiaive/10 but is implemented differently. For Circle of Winter, both effects are distributed evenly between all targets. * Earthquake with Tremors: all units behind the city wall suffer 0.1 ATB penalty. * Divine Guidance: +0.33 ATB to target * Teleport Assault: +0.5 ATB to target * Imbue Arrow: the skill costs 0.5 ATB, attacks/skill attacks involving the spell are treated normally * Imbue Ballista: imbued shot's spell is considered as hero's turn, setting their ATB as if they just casted the spell themselves (?) ;Creature abilities * Stun of the Conscript and Footman resets the target's ATB to 0. * As does the Nightmare's Fear ability. Category:Heroes V gameplay concepts